Paris Olympics opening marred by controversy over dating app ban
Later this evening, the ceremonial inauguration of the Summer Olympics in Paris will take place. Representatives from many disciplines worldwide have already arrived at the village. However, athletes who wish to form closer relationships with people of the same sex may face considerable difficulties.
Sports fans have been eagerly counting down to 26 July. It is this evening that the eyes of the world will be on Paris, where the ceremonial opening of the XXXV Summer Olympics will occur. The lavishly planned show, inaugurating over two weeks of competition for the best performances for their home countries, will feature the biggest entertainment stars.
Thanks to access to many different social platforms, the conditions in the Olympic villages have stopped being an open secret. It must be admitted that the organisers are doing everything possible to ensure the world's capital of romance is not associated with amorous thrills for the Olympics participants. For the first time, they have introduced a restriction that is not to the liking of homosexual athletes.
Olympics participants will not log onto Grindr
A user of the X platform, Louis Pisano, published surprising information on his profile. As we can read in his post, access to the most popular dating app dedicated to the LGBT community has been restricted in the Olympic Village. This decision was made for safety reasons.
Olympic Games organisers decided to avoid in time the commotion comparable to 8 years ago. Back then, a British journalist created an account on the Grindr app to discover the athletes' identities using it. Although he did not decide to reveal their names, detailed descriptions suggested which athletes secretly arranged meetings with people of the same sex.
Nico Hines' article is as unethical as it is dangerous. Over 200 athletes from countries where being gay is punishable by death participate in the Olympic Games . His lack of understanding of their reasons for hiding is offensive and unacceptable - pointed out Hudson Taylor, Director of the Athlete Ally organisation, which fights against discrimination among athletes based on sexual orientation, on NBC.
However, the long-standing tradition of distributing condoms to athletes in the Olympic villages has been maintained. A total of 300,000 contraceptives have been prepared with the note to test them only after the Games are over.
